The 2009 edition of Spindrift, ShorelineCommunity College’s art and literary journal, has been awarded first place in a national literary magazine competition sponsored by the Community College Humanities Association (CCHA).The award is given to only those colleges who have received first place awards at regional juries.

“Spindrift has been an annual source of pride for ShorelineCommunity College,” said Literary Editor Lucy Weiland, who commented that the staff worked diligently to get the job done right in spite of many challenges.

The anthology, a collaboration of works of student, faculty and regional and national contributors, has won many regional awards from CCHA in past years; in the last five years alone it has earned three first place awards and two third place awards.The Pacific-Western Region includes Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Alaska and Hawaii.

“Although this year, Spindrift is recognized by the Community College Humanities Association as the best community college literary magazine in the nation,” said Deborah Handrich, faculty co-advisor, “in my opinion, the award reflects all the hard work of every student involved in Spindrift in the last five years.”

This year the judges noted several things that called attention to Shoreline’s anthology. The cover image submissions were solicited only from students and this year’s edition offered more work of first-time published students than previous editions.“These two factors are perhaps the most important categories in the national competition,” said Handrich.This year’s cover was designed by Sean Sherman.

First published in 1966, not long after Shoreline opened its doors, this year marks the college’s 43rd year to publish Spindrift.The journal is designed, edited and produced by students, and is printed on campus as a training project for the Visual Communication Technology (VCT) Program.

“Spindrift gives the student staff a real-world opportunity as a staff person producing a magazine,” said Handrich.“They must manage submissions from all over the nation and build a cohesive book that expresses student life and a connection to a greater community.”